Oracle Customer Success — State of Morelos Government

Government of Morelos Harmonizes Financial Accounting in the Cloud with Oracle

Our challenge was to obtain financial data from cost centers’ operations, which were handled in different applications and files, and centralize them on one web platform with real-time accounting and reporting. We accomplished that with Oracle Cloud IaaS while increasing performance by 50% and saving US $150,000 per year.

— Elizabeth Milagros Solano Haro, Head of the Systems and Accounting Harmonization Unit, State of Morelos Government

Government of Morelos Harmonizes All Accounting Processes on 1 Platform, Increases Performance by 50%, and Saves US $150,000 per Year with Oracle

Located in South-Central Mexico, Morelos has 2 million inhabitants and is the second-smallest state in the country.

For years, the State of Morelos Government’s accounting procedures were not standardized. Each state’s administrative unit had its own method for managing its finances by using old software applications, spreadsheets, or Word files, which made it very difficult for the Ministry of Finance to create efficient accounting reports on crucial subjects, such as the expenditure concepts that guided the budget. In 2009, the General Law of Government Accounting was brought into effect, establishing the standardization of accounting procedures across the country to increase transparency. Representatives of the Government of Morelos sought a solution that could centralize all data on one platform and improve its accounting reports and records.

Challenges

Integrate all applications and independent accounting methods used by each cost center of the Government of Morelos into one single platform, meeting requirements established by federal law

Expedite the State’s annual budget preparation — in the past, expenditure estimates used to take a long time to get adjusted to the budget ceiling, and the registration of expenses reflected data collection delays on the first quarter of the fiscal year

Reduce the impact of frequent power failures, which suspended services to users in the administration’s units

Results

Adopted Oracle Cloud Infrastructure as a Service and centralized the tools and systems used by each administration unit for government management—budgeting, procurement, accounting, and more—on one single system, facilitating management and compliance with requirements established by federal law

Saved almost US $150,000 per year in expenses by revamping the physical technology infrastructure, plus additional maintenance costs, license fees and broadband internet connection expenses, while gaining a scalable platform in the cloud

Increased accountability performance by 50%, as temporary additional processing capacity can now be easily requested according to the need, which allows for much faster processing of massive accounting data, such as monthly and annual financial closures

Ensured that the budget is set and available in the beginning of the fiscal year while eliminating delays of the release of expenditure records over the first quarter

Provided 24/7 technical support to the government’s accounting system, which is now covered by Oracle—in the past, full-time support was not possible due to strict employee working time, limited to business hours

Facilitated the access of administrative units to the accounting data center, which used to be hosted in the government office’s infrastructure that has a technological backlog because of its geographic location—Oracle Cloud eliminated vulnerability to frequent power outages and internet interruption

Oracle is globally recognized for the high quality of its infrastructure. Other vendors, like Amazon, may have many years in the cloud market as well, but Oracle has the best database capacity and a free operating system with support, so it’s the best provider to meet our needs.

— Elizabeth Milagros Solano Haro, Head of the Systems and Accounting Harmonization Unit, State of Morelos Government

Execution

“Thanks to the expertise of the team and Oracle’s support, the entire implementation process took two months, as expected. In fact, we could have done it in one month, but we wanted to use the extra time for adjustments and ensure that everything was fine. The next step is to migrate all data and applications related to public services, including tax collection and vehicle registration, in the cloud as well,” Milagros said.

About State of Morelos Government

Headquarters

Morelos, Mexico

Employees

1,800

Located in South-Central area of Mexico, Morelos has 2 million inhabitants and is the second-smallest state in the country.

Partners

“The IT Solutions’ team provided great assistance during the purchase process, including price negotiation with Oracle. They helped us understand what we needed to meet the requirements imposed by law and the licenses needed for the applications.” — Elizabeth Milagros Solano Haro, Head of the Systems and Accounting Harmonization Unit, State of Morelos Government